Childhood Collage by Ashlyn Monahan

Newborn: Sensory Capabilities

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:18:07 UTC

The song, "Trouble" by Ray LaMontage, is what I associate with my newborn stage. As we learned, infants have a wide array of developmental capabilities. Sensory development is one aspect of this, for example, hearing capabilities of newborns. My parents have told me that this song played on the way home from the hospital when I was born, and that they would often play it when rocking me\holding me. They said when I heard this song it seemed to calm me down.

Infancy: Infant Cognitive Development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:18:22 UTC

Before I began speaking, my parents had taught me sign language to communicate many words, such as hungry, love, thank you, more, and please. Sign language is an excellent way to increase cognitive development. By using sign language, I was able to communicate with my parents before I could verbalize my wants and needs. Sign language can help reduce frustration in Infants, as they can clearly communicate there needs. It also promotes overall language development, while stimulating cognitive development in the brain.

Physical Development: Fine Motor Skills

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:18:53 UTC

In my early childhood, I began to really enjoy arts and crafts. The image is of a craft I did at home with my mom, where she printed out pictures, and I put stickers on them to make them "come to life". I also would often color on large white rolls of paper that we would hang up in the house. Fine Motor skill development is crucial at a preschool age. Drawing, coloring, and other types of creative art, are great ways to increase fine motor skills in early childhood. Through practicing holding and using things like crayons, markers, and glue, I was able to develop better skills of precision, control. Arts and Crafts that I would do in preschool, and at home, greatly helped increase my fine motor skills.

Early childhood cognitive development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:19:02 UTC

Puzzles are a good way to increase cognitive development in Preschoolers. At age 3, I began loving puzzles, particularly this dinosaur puzzle. I eventually was able to complete it without help, because I had learned and understood where certain pieces went. Puzzles are very beneficial for preschool-aged cognitive development, as they are practicing fine motor skills, such as picking up and placing the puzzle pieces. It also required me to practice patience and determination as I could not give up when I misplaced the pieces.

Early childhood social development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:19:06 UTC

In my preschool\ at-home daycare center, I would often play doctor with my friends. There would be 3-4 of us and we would take turns on who was the doctor and who was the patient. This is an example of realistic pretend play, which is extremely important for development in early childhood. This allows for social development, while practicing realistic roles like a doctor and patient. It also involves socializing with other children and communicating, as well as imagination.

Middle childhood physical development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:19:37 UTC

This photo is from gymnastics. Gymnastics was a big part of my early childhood life starting at age 6 and continuing for several years. Being in gymnastics was excellent for my physical development, it increased my strength, flexibility, and gave me social interactions and encouraged me to try new things. Gymnastics also encouraged me to try other physical activities, such as dance and even cheerleading.

Middle childhood cognitive development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:19:47 UTC

Through my early-middle childhood years, reading was very influential in my life. Starting in first grade, I began to enjoy chapter books. I recall this series "Clementine" being one of my favorite series for several years. At night we were not allowed screen time before bed, but we were allowed to read at night in bed. This was very impactful on my cognitive development skills, as reading greatly enhances language skills, writing skills, and understanding\obtaining information. It can also improve communication and speaking when a child reads out loud. Reading for enjoyment also created a good relationship with reading and educational reading for school. Overall, reading greatly impacts cognitive development.

Middle childhood social development

amonahan22 — 2024-04-05 02:19:51 UTC

This photo is from my tenth birthday party. In my middle childhood, I moved at age 8. As we learned, in this stage, social life from family to peers at schools, friends, and others in the community have a big impact on an individual's life. When I moved, I had a very hard time accepting that I had to make new friends. Moving ended up being great for my social development as I was forced to try new things, and talk to new people, and put myself out there. I chose this photo because I remember feeling happy that I felt like I "fit in" in this new place after the past year when I had not made many friends. As children are trying to understand themselves in these years and have a more complex view of self, which can be challenging, I recall this being a positive part of my middle childhood social development.